Here I will detail the next set of instruments as they go along. Right now there is a guitalele, based on a baritone body, and a true baritone. The guitalele is caramel sycamore back and sides with a Port Orford cedar top and the true baritone is curly black walnut back and sides and a redwood top.
The first job is to glue the two book-matched halves of the top and back together. To do this one must create a perfectly straight edge along the gluing surface. To do this I use a spiral router bit with a bearing and a sled that holds the two pieces. There is a good quality straight-edge set into the sled that rides on the router bearing so I cut a perfectly straight edge.
To glue the halves to get I have tried a number of different ways of clamping the halves together. I’ve made jig boards etc. but what I do now is the utmost in simplicity, works very well, and allows me to do a couple of things at a time, limited by how much really flat space I have. My method is to use tape of all things. Specifically 3M 233+ tape which is green and rather stretchy. I put strips of tape across the halves, leaving them in a ‘V’ shape. The ‘show’ side, the side that will be out and be seen, is down.
I flip this over, apply glue along the crack, and then press it down on a really flat surface (I have a number of pieces of quartz counter top that is very flat, great stuff around the workshop). Since the ‘show’ side is down the ‘show’ edges get lined up and any unevenness will be sanded off the back. As you press it down the tape stretches and creates quite a lot of force. A couple of barbell weights to keep things flat and that is it.
